Already Hamilton has old friend and all-business first baseman Albert Pujols smiling, even joking around with the media. He has manager Mike Scioscia, who can sometimes be a curmudgeon, giddy. He has Mike Trout, who never has a problem smiling, showing a more playful side in public.

As for Hamilton himself, well, he was nothing but a ball of fun when he sat on a stage with Pujols and Trout for a press conference Thursday afternoon. When Pujols started giving one of his stock, boring answers to a question, Hamilton jumped in and said, “This is where you’re supposed to just make something up,” inciting laughter from everyone in the room. When a reporter brought up his prolonged slumps, Hamilton interrupted his question and quipped, “Thanks for pointing that out.” More laughter. He even joked about his too-much-caffeine excuse from last season when he was going through one of those slumps.

Then, when talking about his past in comparison to Pujols’, Hamilton joked, “I took a little bit of a different route than Albert did,” referencing his drug addiction and suspension by Major League Baseball.

The 31-year old made funny faces, held conversations with others off to the side of the stage while Trout and Pujols answered questions, grabbed a piece of candy from a dish and shared one with Trout. He might take his game seriously, but he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

If Hamilton continues to show this kind of character and produces at the plate, the Angels will be a totally different team than the one that finished a not-good-enough 89-73 last season.

If expectations last season rated a 10 thanks to the additions of Pujols and left-hander C.J. Wilson, they are off-the-meter high this year. This is truly a World Series-or-bust season, and a source with knowledge of the situation said that anything short of an American League pennant could cause heads to roll; not even Scioscia, whose contract runs through 2018, would be safe considering owner Arte Moreno isn’t committing to one of the game's highest payrolls to field a loser.

One of the franchise pillars, ace right-hander Jered Weaver, also wants an immediate winner. He knew this in August 2011 when he left as much as $50 million on the table to sign an extension with the Angels. He gave the team a discount so they could put pieces around him to get the team to the World Series.

Over the last two winters, the Angels have done that with Pujols, Wilson and now Hamilton.

“The organization did a great job in getting the pieces to fill in here,” Weaver said. “It’s always exciting to get that blockbuster deal.

“This is why I did what I did. I wanted them to be able to bring in guys to win a world championship. I said from Day 1 that’s what I’m about. I don’t need the blockbuster deal if it helps them to bring the right people in.”

In keeping with this year’s theme, Weaver was smiling while delivering those words and talking about Hamilton, just as Hamilton was smiling when talking about choosing the Angels over the Rangers.

“I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t appealing thinking about the Angels, thinking about placing myself in the lineup with these guys,” Hamilton said.

Scioscia knows he will have fun filling out his lineup card. The Angels just might have the most intimidating order in the business, but Scioscia said he doesn’t think the reality of his good fortune will sink in until he writes his first real lineup, April 1 in Cincinnati.

As for Pujols, he’s dealt with dense expectations for nearly his entire career. He’s also been with teams that started the season outside the spotlight and wound up winning it all (the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, for example). He's also failed with teams that were supposed to dominate only to miss the postseason (last season’s Angels).

He also knows what it’s like to try to win the division in April. It was just last spring that Pujols got off to a horrible start because he wanted to prove to Angels' fans and his teammates that he was worth the 10-year, $240 million contract he signed months earlier.

His slump helped to produce a 4-16 record, the worst 20-game start in franchise history. That start is a big reason why there wasn’t much laughter, fun or joy in the LA clubhouse last year.

“We look good on paper,” Pujols said, “but we still have to go out there and perform.

“Last year we all tried to do too much (in April). We knew what kind of team we had, and we knew we were better than what our record was showing. Sometimes you press, and that’s human nature. If you don’t do that, you’re not human.”

Hamilton is as human as they come. He has fought addiction and depression, relapsed and dealt with slumps that have drowned his production on the field.

Even with all of that around him, Hamilton’s attitude and demeanor just might be the reasons the Angels succeed this season.